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December 07, 2012

North Korea in financial trouble after blowing $100 million on tributes to dead leader Kim Jong-il

North Korea is in serious financial trouble largely due to $110 million it has spent on the personality cult surrounding late leader Kim Jong-il.

The South Korean newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, says that one 23-foot statue of Kim, who died late 2011, erected in Pyongyang cost around $10 million. The country spent $20 million on replacing portraits of Kim, a source told the paper, and $1 million on badges depicting his face.

North Korea faces various economic sanctions and widespread waste, and the country has struggled to support itself financially in recent years. Despite this, the regime has been demanding “donations” from citizens to continue funding Kim Jong-il’s cult of personality, the Chosun Ilbo reports, and is reportedly seeking emergency loans with 20-40% interest from European and Russian lenders.

Kim’s son, new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, doesn’t appear to be in any rush to end the cult of personality. He appeared at the unveiling of statues dedicated to his father and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, early this year, and reportedly ordered a military officer who he felt was not mourning enough to be killed with a mortar round.

Spending by the Kim regime has long been wildly counter to the problems faced by the country.

In August, floods left more than 200,000 people homeless and about 150 people dead, but Kim was photographed opening an amusement park.

Recently, a massive propaganda message about Kim Jong-un was spotted from space. The message built in the Ryanggang Province, according to the BBC, reads ”Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!” and is more than half a kilometre long. Each letter is about the size of a small building.

According to the South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo, the practise dates back to the 1970s when Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s names were carved into the side of a mountain.

North Korea’s military spending is greatly out of proportion to its size. According to the U.S. Department of State, the country spends about 25% of its GNP on its military.

1 comment:

The US spends roar more than 4.7 percent of its GDP in the military. A significant portion of the defense expense are bundled into the budgets of other agencies to hide the true extent of the US military defense spending. Furthermore, the principle and interest in the federal debt comes from military sending, so in essence citizens are forced to pay for these military costs for decades. VA loans are backed by the US government - but these costs are not calculated as part if defense spending, despite the direct correlation. The US doesn't account for cost associated with the societal destruction caused by the influences f the military upon its workforce.

DEA, NSA, CIA, FBI, HS, TSA et al are alos defense spending costs tab are not included in the military budget. Again, these agencies have overspent through the years and citizens are being forced to pay the debts of these ignorant and evil scumbags.

Also not included in defense spending is the prison system. Military and police state costs should be lumped together. There isn't much difference between them - and the US military actively engages in criminal activity, such as protecting the poppy harvest in Afghanistan and supplying cocaine for arms (Iran-Cotra anyone?). If you combine the police state costs (because these costs have been included with military costs in the North Korean budget.

The United States is responsible for more than half of the world's "defuse" spending each year, and these costs do not include interest or the costs of the domestic police state. Nor does it include the money spent gifting weapons to Israel (that is part of the State Department budget) or loans from te IMF and World Bank that subsidize the military spending in other counties. If you look at the real cost of the military in the US, it's more than the percentage of GDP spent of defense by N Korea.

Tehers isn't much difference between the Cult of Personality in North Korea versus the United States. How much money has been spent (and interest paid) on reaming schools, bridges, highways etc. after politicians? How much money (and interest paid) has been spent on the lavish affairs of politicians and military members?

The US is a police state. It's just the Technicolor - wealthier, healthier, prettier- version of North Korea.